‘Are we in trouble?’ Alicia asked, ready to spill some more crocodile tears.
‘I believe that you’re being unkind to Leonora,’ Audrey said sternly. If it were true Alicia deserved the full force of their mother’s scolding.
‘No she’s not,’ interjected Leonora bravely. She glanced across at her sister who smiled at her with such tenderness that Leonora’s little heart swelled with gratitude.
‘I’ve been told that you’re leaving her out of all your games.’
‘I don’t want to join in,’ explained Leonora quickly, picking Saggy Rabbit off her bed and cuddling him.
‘She doesn’t want to,’ repeated Alicia in all innocence. ‘I’m not a beast, Mummy. I wouldn’t be unkind to Leo.’
‘I hope not, Alicia. You’re about to start boarding school where you’ll be among a large number of strange girls. You must stick together. Blood is thicker than water, don’t ever forget that. Life is very hard and you’ll rely on each other for support and encouragement. Isla and I were as different as you two are but we stuck together and never let the other down. It would never have occurred to me to be disloyal because she was a part of me as you are both a part of each other.’
‘I wish I had known Aunt Isla,’ said Alicia, deliberately digressing.
‘I wish you had too. She was a very special person whose light shone so brightly it dazzled. The world is a darker place now but still, there are other lights and you and Leonora shine just as brightly for me.’
‘I’m going to miss you when we go to school.’ Alicia suddenly burst into tears. She did it so convincingly that even Leonora who knew her sister’s ways better than anyone was convinced that she meant it. Alicia looked up from beneath her thick lashes and blinked away large salty tears.
‘I’ll look after you, Alicia,’ her sister soothed, placing a hand on her shoulder.
‘My darling child, come here,’ said Audrey, pulling her weeping daughter into her arms, stroking her hair and kissing her forehead. ‘You’ll be fine when you get there.’
‘I don’t want to go any more. I want to go home.’
Leonora suddenly wanted to go home too but she bit her lip and tried to say the alphabet backwards in her head in order to prevent herself crying. Their poor mother couldn’t cope with both of them crying at once. She watched her sister in her mother’s embrace and wished that she were there too. Alicia was usually so strong and confident, it was unlike her to be scared of anything. Alicia’s apparent crisis of confidence sent her sister into a decline. Leonora now dreaded the thought of boarding school, of England and of Aunt Cicely whom she had never met, but from the snippets that she had picked up she sounded a cold, unfriendly woman in a big, haunted house in the middle of nowhere. She didn’t dare tell her mother of her fears because she knew that it would upset her. As Alicia poured her heart out Leonora wished she had kept her uncertainties to herself.
Audrey was suitably distressed and diverted, which was Alicia’s intention. She blinked back at Leonora and despised her for being a martyr. Leonora smiled back sympathetically. Surely she now deserved her sister’s friendship. Alicia narrowed her eyes and decided to be nice for a bit. Being nice was always a challenge and she liked challenges.
In the final days of the voyage Audrey was pleased to hear from Mrs B that Alicia was now including her sister in everything. ‘Whatever you said, my dear, did the trick. They’re like two peas in a pod,’ she exclaimed happily, hurrying up the deck with an armful of pirate costumes for the end-of-trip play. She had offered Mr Linton the part of Captain Hook but he had declined, stating that the willow tree had been the highlight of his acting career and besides, he couldn’t think of anything more beastly than wielding a nasty hook at all those dear children. ‘It’s against my nature,’ he claimed, winking at Audrey in amusement.
The following morning when one of the youngsters ran down the deck screaming ‘land ahoy, land ahoy,’ Audrey’s timeless voyage, between the past and the future in what seemed an eternal moment, finally moved on. Gazing at the dreary sight of Southampton dock as it emerged out of the early morning mist anchored her mind and heart once more in the here and now and the painful journey that lay ahead of her. It was a joyless sight but one that aroused in the hearts of those who loved England a flutter of excitement and a sigh of relief. There was no place like home and even the dull skies and grey coastline did little to dampen their joy. ‘Ah, England,’ exclaimed Mr Linton happily. ‘There’s no place quite like it.’